The Love of Reading One post-school afternoon, a passing parent popped her head into my classroom, introduced herself as Zach’s mother, and thanked me for teaching her son “to appreciate literature.” This memory was triggered recently by a headline, “Only 10% of boys aged 14–16 read daily for pleasure, National Literacy Trust.” Following this line of logic, Zach was one of the 90% or so when he reached 16 or 17 years of age, but something happened during the course of his Ame

The word is reconstruction . It appears in a sixth-grade social studies text, embedded in a paragraph about rebuilding a nation after war. The sentence is dense, the ideas unfamiliar. But the word itself is readable. A student reads it aloud without hesitation. Accurate, fluent, even automatic. When asked what it means, he pauses. “Construction again?” It’s a reasonable attempt. He recognizes a familiar base and applies what he knows. But something is missing, and the gap isn

Why Images Remain an Important Element of Literacy Instruction By Shelley Evans-Marshall, MA, with Gladys Rosa-Mendoza The photograph, like the one shown here, is black and white. The subject’s expression is stoic. Mexican artist Frida Kahlo sits crouched on a step outside a doorway. She wears her characteristic Tehuana dress and layered jewelry. Her right hand clasps her left wrist. Her left elbow anchors her leg. Her left hand—rings on every finger—cradles her face, eyes ca